BLACK GROUSE. 31 



people who are unacquainted with, them would take no notice of them." He then says: — 

 "I now come to your last query, which is, if they ever bred? and if they did not 

 succeed, the reasons assigned for their not doing so? I really confess that I cannot 

 assign any satisfactory reason whatever, as I have no doubt that full-grown birds would 

 live as well in Ireland as they do in Scotland, if they were only let alone. "What I 

 am most doubtful about is, whether they will breed as well; and the reason I am 

 doubtful about this is, that when I was in Scotland, keeper with Lord Douglas, at 

 Douglas Castle, where Black Game are very plentiful, I used, in hunting the dogs over 

 the ground, to find all the young broods of Black Game, not among heath or moss ground, 

 where young Grouse generally are, but on white or green ground, where sprit or 

 rushes are plentiful, and where you will seldom find young Grouse. But when they get 

 strong and able to do for themselves, they get into packs, often to the number of forty 

 or fifty, and fly over the whole country, and take both to the woods and corn-fields. 

 When at Douglas last, I was talking to Lord Douglas' keeper about what he thought 

 the young birds fed on. He said that early in the season he had caught some young 

 birds, intending to tame them and learn them to feed, so that I might be better able 

 to get them safe over ; but they all died in a day or two. He cut open some of their 

 crops to see what they fed on, and could observe nothing but the seed of the sprit or 

 rush. Xow, from the number of black cattle that are kept on the mountains in the 

 north of Ireland, there is scarcely any sprit or rushes allowed to grow that would be of 

 any use either for cover or food. I have seldom seen Black Game sit when cattle go near 

 them, and a crow flying over will make a score of them rise and fly away in the latter 

 end of the season, Avhen they are strong on the wing. With respect to the haunts and 

 breeding-ground of young Black Game, I speak only from my own observations. I am 

 not aware that they haunt the same kind of ground in other parts of the country; I 

 merely wish to direct your attention to it I know there are plenty in the Island of 

 Arran, but do not know what sort of ground they frequent there. As I mentioned 

 before, none of the hens have been seen since the beginning of the breeding-time; 



Do O 



whether they began to hatch, and were killed by some vermin, or wandered away in 

 search of a more suitable place for their purpose, is a question I cannot answer. Lord 

 Courtown's keeper was at Douglas Castle shortly after I was, in November, 1839, and 

 got away six brace to his Lordship's estates south of Dublin, but I have not heard how 

 they succeeded." 



A similar want of success has been attendant on birds brought from Scotland, and 

 turned out at Tollemore Park, county of Down. In April, 1846, there was still a fine 

 Gray Hen there, but no male bird. 



The great difference which usually exists between the food of the young and adult birds 

 of almost all species, will readily account for the fact here stated — as to adidt birds 



